House Approves Doc Fix Legislation as Deadline Looms
Before leaving town on their week-long recess, the House approved the
“SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act”
(H.R. 4015) sponsored by Rep. Michael Burgess (Tex.), which will make
the “Doc Fix” permanent by repealing the antiquated
Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) and replace it with a fair, stable,
simplified system of physician payments for Medicare and TRICARE
programs. The current temporary extension of the doc fix expires April
1, 2014. If it is not extended or replaced by a new law, doctors seeing
Medicare and TRICARE patients will have their reimbursements slashed by
25 percent—a move that may force many providers to stop seeing
Medicare and TRICARE patients. The bill now goes to the Senate for
further consideration. Members are urged to use the Action Center to ask
their senators to support this legislation at: http://action.fra.org/action-center/

Social Security Speed-up of Disabled Veterans Claims
The Social Security Administration (SSA) recently announced it will
streamline its review of disability claims for veterans, reducing by
weeks the process by which it determines benefits. The agency says it
will expedite claims for former service members who already have been
deemed fully disabled by the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA),
eliminating much of the bureaucratic “red tape” requiring
veterans to wait to get a decision about their eligibility for benefits,
sometimes for years. This change would add disabled veterans to the list
of high-priority groups—including service members wounded in
combat—that are put at the head of the line for review.

"It's a very good result for veterans who obviously made a tremendous
commitment to their country," said Rep. John Sarbanes (Md.) who has
pushed for the quicker review. "They're returning from overseas
conflicts and they've suffered injuries that make it impossible for them
to have gainful employment."

It's not clear exactly how many people would be affected by the
policy, but the SSA estimates it could be tens of thousands of veterans
over time. Fully disabled veterans accounted for about 10 percent of all
veterans who received disability benefits from the VA in 2012, the last
year for which data are available.

Under the new policy, applicants who have been deemed 100 percent
disabled by the VA are to be put on a "fast track" at virtually every
step of the process. The change won't make it any more likely that
veterans will receive benefits, officials say just that they'll get a
decision more quickly.

Veteran’s Use of Post 9/11 GI Bill Increasing
Information released from the VA indicates that the number of veterans
taking advantage of the Post 9/11 GI Bill program is increasing. This
FRA-supported legislation was enacted into law in 2008 and took effect
in 2009. Since its enactment, the number of veterans using the benefit
has increased by 67 percent fromfiscal 2009 to fiscal 2012—the
last year data was available. In real numbers, veterans using the
benefit have increased from 564,487 students in 2009 to 945,052 in
2012.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill extended education benefits to service members
who have been on active duty 90 or more days since September 10, 2001,
or who were discharged with a service-related disability after 30 days.
It provides up to 36 months of education benefits, generally payable for
15 years following release from active duty.

A provision of the Post-9/11 GI Bill also allows veterans and service
members to transfer unused benefits to their children or spouses, but
about 79 percent are benefits used by veterans or service members
themselves, according to VA data.

The VA has recently created several tools designed to make it easier
for veterans to pursue higher education. A new online complaint system,
launched in January, allows student veterans to detail problems they
have experienced trying to access benefits at certain universities; some
schools have been accused of using deceptive tactics to boost veteran
enrollment. An online “GI Bill Comparison Tool,” meanwhile,
allow veterans to easily compare how they can use their benefits at
different universities.

FRAis supporting pending legislation, the “GI Bill Tuition
Fairness Act” (H.R. 357) that recently passed the House (390-0).
This bill would require schools eligible for GI Bill education benefits
to give veterans in-state tuition rates even though they may not be
residents of the states where the schools are located. Because of the
nature of military service, veterans often have a difficult time
establishing residency for purposes of obtaining in-state tuition rates.
Those who defended this nation did not just defend the citizens of their
home states, but the citizens of all 50 states. As such, the educational
benefits they receive from the taxpayers should reflect that fact.

__________________________NewsBytes is FRA's weekly legislative update. If you received this
through a forward and would like to subscribe, please e-mail newsbytes@fra.org with "Subscribe"
in the subject line and your name and address in the body. If you are a
member of FRA or LA FRA, please include your member number as well. To
unsubscribe, please respond to this email with "unsubscribe" in the
message line.

If you would like to hear a recorded version of NewsBytes, dial
1-800-FRA-1924 (ext. 112).

FRA is celebrating its 90th anniversary and is the oldest and
largest association representing the interests of current and former
Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard personnel. If you are not a member
and are eligible, please join FRA at www.fra.org. The larger the membership
base, the louder your voice is heard on Capitol Hill!